Gates Has Canceled On Bush To Meet With Obama Team

Diplomatic Memo
A Defense Secretary at Work for 2 Commanders in Chief

WASHINGTON — At a brief news conference in Kandahar, Afghanistan, an Afghan reporter asked Robert M. Gates, President Bush’s defense secretary, the first, pertinent question: Just what was President-elect Barack Obama’s policy for his war-weary country?
Mr. Gates’s response was swift, as if he had been working for Mr. Obama for months.
“The president-elect has been very explicit throughout the campaign and since the election that he believes that waging this fight in Afghanistan is a high priority and he would like to see more resources devoted to this fight, including more troops,” Mr. Gates said at the news conference, held Thursday at a military base in Kandahar, the ideological center of gravity for the Taliban. “So I think that you will see a continuing American commitment to defeating the enemies of the Afghan people during the administration of the president-elect.”
Mr. Gates, who will be staying on as Mr. Obama’s defense secretary, is making his own transition from one commander in chief to the next.
The metamorphosis was particularly startling last week on his unannounced trip to Afghanistan and Iraq, where he traveled as an emissary and reconnaissance agent for his next boss.

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